We first met way back in high school, 2006; Brooks was a senior and I was a sophomore. Most of our time together was in Spanish class that year, where I discovered the funny nature to him. He was always making me laugh. Our first official date came in 2009 at El Mirador on Valentine’s Day, which is a tradition we still have today! We may have had our ups and downs, but we always found our way back to one another and never really left each other's lives. I can’t tell you officially how many years we have been together, but it has been long enough! We are thankful for the MANY memories that have been made and like Brooks says “the best is yet to come!”

I didn't have many good ideas for a proposal. All I knew was I wanted to propose before Christmas. So, when Lauren surprised me with an overnight trip to Leavenworth, I knew this was it. We arrived in the afternoon and immediately did what anyone else would do, went to world famous Munchen Haus for a German sausage and an IPA. After a little stroll through the village, we headed back to the room to get ready for the night ahead. We had dinner at the Bavarian Bistro, a cool restaurant bar overlooking the town and all its Christmas glory. We are huge Christmas people. This is where we shared our very first schnitzel. Highly recommend! As we bounced from bar to bar, I knew this ring I've been carting around in my coat pocket all day wasn't going to be in there much longer. When we left the last local dive around 1am, it was go time. I lead Lauren up to a nice spot overlooking the Christmas trees that I had scoped out on our way into town. It was perfect! In fact, it was so perfect that she asked if I was going to propose. Caught off guard I answered back, "actually yep," as I took out the ring and got on one knee. I popped the question right then and there. She replied with a yes and here we are, just months away from our wedding. We couldn't have imagined it working out any better than it did!